Facile synthesis of high N-content carbon-confined amorphous SnS as anode material for lithium-ion batteries

Tin sulfide (SnS) has drawn great attention as an anode material of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high theoretical capacity and good reversibility, but the practical application is hindered by poor conductivity and volume change. Herein, we reported a facile method to synthesize N-doped carbon-confined amorphous SnS (a-SnS@N-C) by one-step precipitation and annealing. This route is low-cost and time-saving compared with previous synthetic methods of SnS composite. At 1 A g−1, a-SnS@N-C anode exhibits remarkable capacity of 578.8 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles, higher than 30.7 mAh g−1 of amorphous SnS. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation manifested the ion diffusion coefficient in a-SnS@N-C similar to the value calculated from the results of cyclic voltammetries, which is higher than that of crystalline SnS. Such route to synthesize a-SnS@N-C with satisfactory electrochemical performances can pave the way for low-cost and time-saving fabrication of SnS-based anode materials.